It’s a paid feature for YouTube. They want you to pay up for background playback, so they won’t risk the free version being too convenient.
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First there was no background playback on iOS because Google needed to show how bad iOS was at multi-tasking, even with all of the relevant API's for background media already in place. Now they degraded the Android user experience to match that so they can sell what could have been possible from almost the beginning as an upgrade.
I guess YouTube finally smothered all the competition with unlimited free money from Google and can now start to squeeze it's userbase.
Ugh I hate the YouTube app so much.
Every 3rd open is a "want to try premium?" popover, like some beggar on the street. Closing a video requires 2 precisely positioned and executed swipes. Everything looks like an Android app, like all Googles apps for iOS.
Just terrible.
Well I agree that there’s a lot to hate about the app but if it means YouTube can move to a business model that doesn’t rely on surveillance and advertising then I think I can’t really complain too much
I've resorted to using YouTube with Safari when I want to watch a video in Picture-in-Picture mode.
I'm NOT paying a monthly fee for a feature that basic.
You're not paying for the feature, it is a hostage situation and you would be paying to get a proper user experience.
Bringing you back to the main landing screen with regularity looks like a simple way to push the user towards looking at suggested videos again.
Even if you pay for Premium, it will forget what video you were looking on if the video was paused when you put it in the background. Especially infuriating if you're double-checking something on the web to reply to a comment
The most disgusting dark pattern is that the comment thread will jump to the top if an ad starts playing.
And it is free with kiwi or Firefox + extension
Or with my iOS jailbreak :)